Robert Mondavi had a dream of creating an institution that celebrated wine, food and the arts in American culture.

He also had $20 million, the support of culinary royalty like Julia Child and a nation more interested in food and wine than ever before. The result is Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts.

"Copia" is the Roman goddess of wealth and plenty (think cornucopia). The rest of the $55 million center's name, like the concept, is a little more cumbersome.

As Copia's directors sprint toward this weekend's grand opening, they're still searching for a way to translate the heady conceptual mix of visual art, cooking, organic gardening and winemaking into a clear concept that will attract 300,000 visitors a year.

"It's more complicated because the mission is broader-scoped than just food or just wine or just art, even though there are tremendous, wonderful connections between wine, food and art," says Peggy Loar, head of the nonprofit center.

Copia is set on 12 acres on the bank of the Napa River that Mondavi and his wife, Margrit Biever Mondavi, purchased for $1.2 million in 1996. The site, just a long walk or a short drive from Napa's town center, features acres of hand-selected

trees and edible plants, a restaurant named after Julia Child, a state-of- the-art demonstration kitchen and museum-quality gallery space.

A visitor's first stop might be a free half-hour lecture on, say, the wines of Oregon and Washington or how to make olive oil.

Next, visitors could wander through the standing exhibition "Fork in the Roads" and watch film clips of classic food fights, learn the history of agriculture or explore America's fascination with convenience food.

They may buy lunch cooked by a visiting chef at Julia's Kitchen and spend the afternoon at a cooking demonstration (some will cost extra), wandering through displays of rare wineglasses or watching a theater piece, ending the day by buying cooking gadgets or wine at the gift shop.

For the average Bay Area resident, Copia offers a place to take visiting relatives as well as a nice addition to a weekend in the wine country. And a host of advanced food and wine classes, food-related films and special music and art events may provide reason to return once interest in the core exhibits has waned.

One trick will be to differentiate the center from the more professionally attuned Culinary Institute of America Greystone campus in St. Helena. Still, Copia aims to appeal to art and food connoisseurs as well as more typical wine country tourists.

"You've got foodies on one hand and real vinophiles on the other hand. You've got the high-art crowd and the low-art crowd. The challenge is really to try to cross-pollinate them and introduce them to each other," Loar says.

The attempt to integrate all three is reflective of the honorary board, which includes the ubiquitous Martha Stewart, wine writer Robert Parker, Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters and Sacramento artist Wayne Thiebaud, who made his name painting images of food. Mondavi and the leaders of several local businesses, including more than a dozen people with ties to the wine industry, are on the board. In fact, wine interests funded about 70 percent of the initial cost.

"The art folks are going to get it, but the food folks will, too," Loar said. "History and society and culture can be abstract. But in context of vineyard and kitchen and table, it becomes concrete and real because people eat every day."

Whether it will work won't be known for some time.

"Copia is a lot like a restaurant. When it opens, it's not the end. It's just the beginning. It's a work in progress," says Clark Wolf, a well-known national restaurant consultant who started his food career in the Bay Area. "The building is lovely and the grounds are beautiful, but it has to build a reputation. It does not arrive on the half shell."

Wolf believes that many Americans are hungry for more ways to interact with the world of food and wine. The movement can be seen in the rise of high-end cooking stores, increased cookbook sales and the popularity of TV's 8-year-old Food Network.

If Copia can catch that wave and at the same time maintain a strong, smart vision steeped in historical accuracy and cultural relevance, it will succeed, Wolf predicts.

"It'll only be as good as it's curated. If it's just an amusement ride, it will fail."

Land of abundance

Here's a peek at what's inside Copia.

-- The gardens: More than three acres of the compound have been turned into a landscaped, edible organic garden. The star is the garden pavilion, which features a kitchen and 20-foot dining table surrounded by a kitchen garden. Several orchards are home to apricot, plum, nectarine, citrus and nut trees.

An olive grove and an Italian American garden are particularly interesting, since Copia is built on land farmed by Italian immigrants. In addition to a demonstration vineyard with 60 vines -- two each of 30 grape varieties -- there are red and white wine gardens that will be planted with the sorts of fruits, flowers and herbs that represent flavors found in wine.

-- The main exhibition: "Forks in the Road" is Copia's long-term core attraction. A visitor walks through state-of-the-art displays that explore everything from the advent of cooking with fire to the invention of Jell-O. Visitors can post comments about issues such as genetically engineered food, take a quiz testing their knowledge of restaurant history and try to identify different smells. And because this is Napa, the history of American winemaking gets plenty of play.

-- The art: The opening exhibition is "Active Ingredients," featuring installations by eight internationally prominent artists who created new works relating to food.@sk,0

San Francisco artist and former pastry chef Gay Outlaw will create a series of postminimalist caramelized-sugar sculptures. Jorge Pardo of Chicago installed a series of handmade blue and green tiles in the main Copia kitchen. New York artist Lee Mingwei's piece involves video of a meal shared by the artist and Copia director Peggy Loar.

-- The restaurants: The 75-seat Julia's Kitchen will showcase regional and seasonal dishes cooked with ingredients grown in the surrounding gardens. Although she isn't lending much more than her name to the restaurant, Julia Child has donated part of her Cambridge, Mass., kitchen to Copia -- a pegboard and the pots and pans that hung there. Child, who is moving from her longtime home to a retirement community near Santa Barbara, gave the rest of her kitchen to the Smithsonian and family.

The food in the restaurant that bears her name will reflect the California- French cooking of former McCall Catering chef Mark Dommen, whose resume includes Fleur de Lys in San Francisco, Lespinasse and Palladin in New York and Alain Ducasse's Louis XV in Monte Carlo. Visiting chefs also will cook there.

Other spots to eat and drink include the Wine Spectator Tasting Table and a market where items for a picnic can be purchased.

-- The entertainment: An outdoor concert terrace overlooking the Napa River can seat 500. Inside, a 280-seat theater will feature speakers, films and performances.

Tips for the visitor

Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, 500 First St., Napa, hosts grand-opening events Sunday. A parade, which begins on First Street near Jefferson Street at 10 a.m., features Robert Mondavi and Julia Child as well as American food icons including the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

Free tickets to Copia will be available on a first-come, first-served basis on First Street along the parade route and at Copia starting at 8 a.m.

The daylong festival also includes more than 100 American wineries offering tastings for a nominal cost along First Street.

Parking is available at Napa Valley College and Napa Valley High School. Shuttle buses will run continuously. For parking information, call (707) 265- 5775.

Beginning Monday, Copia's regular hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Admission is $12.50 for adults, $10 for students and seniors, and $7.50 for children ages 6 through 12. The price includes entrance into the building and gardens, exhibitions, tours and 30-minute introductory food and wine classes.